


First

by eleanor_lavish, thepsychicclam



Series: Valiant Effort [34]
Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-20
Updated: 2009-07-20
Packaged: 2017-11-28 03:52:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/669964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eleanor_lavish/pseuds/eleanor_lavish, https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepsychicclam/pseuds/thepsychicclam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every band has a series of firsts. VE-verse fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First

**Author's Note:**

> Written by Clammy.

1\. _P.S. You Rock My World_

The first time Orlando saw Billy, he'd been chatting up a bloke named Paul at small pub in Glasgow. Orlando never paid any attention to the throwaway acts that littered the pub stages, but with the first solo strum of the acoustic guitar and the soft lilt caressing through the crowd, Orlando had forgotten all about Paul.

After a short set while Orlando stood in the shadows, fixed upon the Scottish nobody with a guitar and something to prove with his music, Billy walked off stage and no one in the room noticed. No one, that is, except Orlando.

Billy looked surprised when Orlando offered him a drink, then even more so when he bought the whole pub a round of shots. He could afford it; wasn't his money anyway.

But nothing matched the surprise on Billy's face when Orlando leaned close, inhaling sweat, cigarettes, and the faint scent of cologne, and said, "I play guitar also. We should get together and play sometime," then handed Billy his phone number.

2\. _Just Like Heaven_

The first time Elijah saw Dom, he knew he'd fallen in love. Dom was cool and stylish and attractive and confident – everything Elijah wasn't.

Elijah listened to every drummer who auditioned for the band before him; it didn't take long, since only five people were trying out, mostly friends of the band members. He'd overheard about the audition at his new bartending job and thought he'd take a chance. And he stood out like a sore thumb among the piercings and tattoos and rockstar hair. He really wished he had put in his contacts instead of wearing his damn glasses.

When it was his turn, Elijah walked up and tripped over a chair. Blushing a deep scarlet, he looked at the three guys: the tall one with dark hair glanced at his watch, the shorter one with the sandy hair stared at him intensely, and the other one, _the_ one, looked on with a bemused expression.

Elijah knew he was fucked.

"We're looking for someone a little older," the one who said his name was Billy explained. "Someone with a little more experience. And not in school."

Elijah nodded, defeated. But as he turned to go, Dom spoke up.

"Let the kid try out," he said. Elijah looked over his shoulder, shocked. Dom winked at him. "Maybe what we need is some fresh American blood."

And Elijah knew at that moment that there'd never be anyone else but Dominic Monaghan.

3\. _The Wrong Band_

The first time Valiant Effort practiced together, they sounded like a train wreck set to the tune of the Smashing Pumpkins, Flogging Molly, and Bright Eyes.

Billy led the melody, but no one followed, Orlando played louder than Billy, Dom's bass was off-beat, and Elijah's drumming drowned out everything else. After six hours, they finally played a version of _War_ (which Dom swore anybody who wanted to be in a band should be able to do) and something that resembled _Stairway To Heaven_.

When they finally returned to their new apartment, sweaty and irritated and sore, Billy pulled a case of cheap beer out of the cooler in the kitchen and distributed them as they sat on the floor around a cement block and piece of cardboard that served as a make-shift table.

After chugging half his beer, Billy glanced around at them, eyes shining.

"I think we have something."

4\. _Such Great Heights_

The first time Valiant Effort played on stage together, each of them knew that was exactly where they were supposed to be. Every note was perfect, every chord seamless, every lyric nailed. Even though it was just a small five song gig at Ian's bar on a Friday night, it had the same feeling as they thought playing the Grammy's would.

Elijah felt included for the first time since he'd joined the band. Dom felt like he wouldn't end up back in Manchester a drunken, broke bum like his father. Orlando wanted to call his father collect and scream a big "FUCK YOU" over the phone line. And Billy realized that if he did everything right, this was the dream he'd been working for his whole life.

5\. _My Immortal_

The first time Billy realized he was in love with Orlando, he was sitting in a hospital emergency room while Dom paced the floor in front of him and Stu was snorting cocaine at some actor's party in London and couldn't be bothered to care.

All he could hear were the words, "Fell…broken his back…may never walk again…" All he could see was Orlando's smiling face, his dark curls, his long, lean torso as he walked out of the ocean one July afternoon, the muscles in his back as he bent down and picked up a Frisbee to throw to his dog. The most beautiful, perfect man he'd ever known in his life, now shattered into shards of imperfection.

It was in this same moment that every fear Billy had spent twenty years trying to silence came flooding back, and he ran to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet. He sat on the floor, back against the wall, and stared at the ceiling and tried to forget. Tried to forget being a young boy and holding his sister's hand during long days and nights at the hospital, his mother and then his father holding on to life by nothing but a respirator, tried to forget the smell of a waiting room, a hospital room, the sound of machines, the pitied glances from nurses and doctors at the two poor near-orphans as they wasted away the hours waiting for their parents to die.

When the nurse finally let Billy and Dom see Orlando, Orlando joked with Dom, and he smiled and acted brave for Billy. Billy fought off nausea and suppressed his fear – he acted even braver for Orlando.

It was in the same moment that Billy realized he couldn't ever let himself love Orlando.

6\. _A Lack Of Color_

The first time Dom realized he loved Elijah, he was sitting in the driver's seat of a rented car on his way to Iowa for Thanksgiving. Elijah had fallen asleep beside him with his head propped up against the window. The interstate was long and dark, with the occasional exit lights giving the inside of the car an ethereal glow.

He glanced over with the intention of waking Elijah, but stopped himself. The lights flashed across Elijah's skin in a staccato rhythm, casting his face in a bronze glow before falling back into shadow. The harsh artificial light left his profile in stark relief, intensifying the perfect line of his nose, soft eyelashes against his cheek, pouty lips.

Dom spent ten miles and three cigarettes pretending that he didn't turn the radio off to listen to Elijah's breathing as he slept, ignoring the way each little sound from Elijah's mouth caused his stomach to flip and the way his heart clenched when Elijah moved to face him in his sleep.

He reached out and touched Elijah's cheek softly and dragged his fingertips lightly down the side of his neck. He stopped and pressed his fingers against a pulse point, feeling the throbbing of Elijah's heartbeat beneath his touch.

He pulled his fingers away suddenly, lit a cigarette, and turned up the volume on the radio.

7\. _Over Your Head_

The first time Orlando, Billy, and Dom had gone to another country together, they stood side by side in JFK airport wondering what in the fuck they were thinking when they spent every last dime of Orlando's money on three cheap plane tickets to America. People rushed by them, knocked into them, and swore in weird accents. If they'd had the money, they'd have bought three tickets on the very next plane back to the UK.

But they were broke, so they found jobs they hated and forgot about music until one day months later, when Billy had pulled his guitar out of storage and started playing a song he'd written that day on the subway. Orlando and Dom found their guitars and within moments, it didn't matter that they were four thousand miles from home and hated every thing associated with New York.

8\. _The Million You Never Made_

The first time Elijah went to another country, he was on a red-eyed flight with Orlando, Billy, and Dom. He sat in a seat by himself, pretending that the reason he was gripping the armrests was something other than that flying scared him. Orlando and Billy were involved in their conversation, Dom had headphones on and his eyes closed, and Elijah stared out the window at the plane wing, at the flight attendants, even the floors for any sign that the plane was unsafe. And when the plane took off, he thought he'd pass out before the plane leveled out again.

He also pretended that the reason he wanted the plane to crash somewhere over Greenland was because he had just failed all his finals, and not because he knew the band was breaking up. Dom decided to leave with Miranda, Orlando's father had died, and Elijah…well, Elijah hated being a tag-a-long where he wasn't he wanted. If the plane crashed, they would die together, still a band.

Still Valiant Effort.

-fin  



End file.
